


A Small Breakthrough

by buckybarnes19



Series: Bucky's Big Adventure [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Ficlet, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Recovering!Bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-30
Updated: 2015-05-30
Packaged: 2018-04-01 23:39:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4039012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckybarnes19/pseuds/buckybarnes19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve tries to help an uncooperative recovering!Bucky try to remember his past</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Small Breakthrough

“Come on, Bucky,” Steve says, standing with his hands on his hips and an exasperated look on his face. He’s been trying to help his friend with his memory loss since they reconnected and for the most part Bucky’s been good about it but today he won’t cooperate. Steve is trying to be patient but he’s tired after a long night and too many bad days in a row.

“I don’t feel like it,” Bucky says sullenly, and remains curled up on the couch with a sour expression. The box of pictures and mementos, scraps if his life before Hydra, remains untouched on the table in front of him. He pointedly refuses to look at it.

Sometimes Steve wonders how much of him is Bucky Barnes and how much of him is The Winter Soldier.

He sighs, thinks longingly of a shower and then bed, but that isn’t the kind of man he is so he sits on the couch beside Bucky, picks up the box, and opens it. There is a story behind every piece Steve has managed to scrape together since he woke up in the 21st Century and Steve tells them all, and the longer he sits there the more he opens up and enjoys himself. He realizes he needs this as much as Bucky. It cheers him up to have his friend with him again. Neither of them are the same and that’s OK.

Glancing over he sees Bucky watching keenly. “Remember this?” Steve says, holding up a wrinkled photo of Bucky and Steve together, before the war, before Captain America, before everything. 1941 it says on the back; they are both smiling and one of Bucky’s sisters is in the photo looking a little cross because Bucky had been teasing her ruthlessly. “This was the day we went to Coney Island, remember? You made me ride that - what was it called?” He screws up his face, trying to recall the name of that particular death machine.

“The Cyclone,” Bucky says. It’s the first time he’s spoken in a while and it takes Steve a moment to process the relevance of what’s just happened. He looks at Bucky, startled.

“Yeah. Do you remember it?” He’s excited but trying hard not to seem over eager. The doctors say it’s important to let Bucky recall events on his own and so Steve relaxes, doesn’t ask any leading questions.

“Didn’t you….” He frowns, struggles, tries to process what’s real and what might not be, tries to allow the memory to come naturally. “Did you… throw up?”

Steve’s heart leaps and he grins. “Yeah! All over your date. She never spoke to you again and you never let me forget it.”

The sour look on Bucky’s face is gone and he’s smiling now. “Susan…Roberts. Yeah, Roberts.”

“Close. Susannah Robertson.”

The smile on Bucky’s face is small but it’s triumphant. A small breakthrough, a step toward recovery. He doesn’t wait for Steve to pull out the next photograph but takes it himself, holding it gently in fingers that are used to holding guns and weapons and dealing death.

The Winter Soldier isn’t gone.  
But neither is Bucky Barnes.


End file.
